
MI 



II7UH ■ 



W 11 bur C h ap man 




Class. 

Book._ 

CopyrightN 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



DAY BY DAY, 



OR 



Meditations for the 

Morning Watch. 



Rev. J? Wilbur Chapman, D. D, 

I Author of "The Secret of a Happy Day," "The Sur. 

rendered Life," " Spiritual Life in the Sunday 

School," " From Life to Life," etc. 




United Society of Christian Endeavor 
Boston and Chicago 



xK 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUN. 22 1901 

Copyright entry 
< CLASS O. XXc. N* 
COPY 3. 



Copyrighted, 1901, 

by the 

United Society of Christian Endeavor 



$ltmpttm $resg 



M. PLIMPTON & CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS, 
NORWOOD, iVSAsS., U, S.A. 



To 

Mrs. George H. C. MacGregor, of London, 
this little book is respectfully dedicated in loving 
memory of her honored husband, whose devoted 
life profoundly influenced me and whom I have 
many times quoted in these pages to follow. 

J. Wilbur Chapman. 

New York, July, igoi . 



^ 



The Scripture. 

And the Levites and the priests praised the Lord 
day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the 
Lord. — 2 Chron. 30 : 21. 

Also day by day, from the first day unto the last 
day, he read in the book of the law of God. And 
they kept the feast seven days ; and on the eighth 
day was a solemn assembly, according unto the 
manner. — Neh. 8:18. 

Give us day by day our daily bread. — Lukei 1:3. 

For which cause we faint not ; but though our 
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed 
day by day. — 2 Cor. 4:16. 



Contents. 



PAGE 

First Day — The Morning Watch 9 

Second Day — Preparing to See the King 13 

Third Day— His Plan for Us 16 

Fourth Day — Some Things Presupposed 22 

Fifth Day — His Co-operation 25 

Sixth Day — The Holy Spirit's Presence 30 

Seventh Day — Our Failure 34 

Eighth Day — Our Secret Life 37 

Ninth Day — Our Reading and Our Dress .... 40 

Tenth Day — Our Home Life 43 

Eleventh Day — Our Social and Business Life ... 46 

Twelfth Day— His Patience 51 

Thirteenth Day — His Patience 54 

Fourteenth Day— Our Need 58 

Fifteenth Day— His Longing 63 

Sixteenth Day — Things to Remember 69 

Seventeenth Day — A Definite Yielding 72 

Eighteenth Day — Bible-study 75 

Nineteenth Day — Prayer 80 

Twentieth Day — Some Suggestions about Prayer . 85 

Twenty-first Day— Obedience 88 

Twenty-second Day — The Manifestation of Power . 93 

Twenty-third Day — The Closing Prayer 98 

Twenty-fourth Day to Thirtieth Day — Specimen 

Week 101 

7 



First Day. 
The Morning Watch. 

The three words, "day by day," with 
which these thoughts are introduced, are 
found in various places in the word of God, 
and in them we have the secret of a life of 
blessing. The difficulty with many of us is 
that our life is too intermittent, we are near 
to Christ one day in thought, and far away 
from him the next, while if we lived as we 
should, "day by day" in communion with 
him, since he is the great reservoir, and 
faith is the channel through which his life 
flows to us, we might live as he lives. 

They present to us, also, the secret of the 
prayer life. It is to that Christian who has 
learned the lesson of " day-by-day " com- 
munion with Christ that he reveals himself 
most graciously, and also gives his secret 
thoughts which are not for all his follow- 
ers, but for those who dwell in the inner 
circle where all are privileged to abide. 

They also present us the secret of suc- 
9 



io Day by Day. 

cessful Bible-study. It is not by fits and 
starts that we are to come to a helpful 
knowledge of the word of God, but the 
" day-by-day " study, counting that day all 
but lost which did not begin with God's 
word, run on in its power, and close with 
its blessing. 

I find in the Old Testament that the peo- 
ple "day by day" praised God, which we 
ought to do. In prayer we ask God for 
something, but in praise we bring an offer- 
ing to him. In the New Testament, in the 
prayer our Master taught his disciples, the 
expression again occurs, "Give us 'day by 
day' our daily bread," while in the epistle 
to the Corinthians, Paul tells us that "the 
inward man is renewed ' day by day.' ' 

With this much of an introduction, our 
first meditation is concerning the "morning 
watch." Within recent years the Young 
Men's Christian Association, in the Student 
Department particularly, has come to ob- 
serve this rule and not without blessing. 
In the Christian Endeavor Society the same 
practice prevails, and thousands of young 
people are Comrades of the Quiet Hour. 
Different bodies of believers have given 
different names to their waiting upon 



The Morning Watch. 11 

Christ, but the thought is the same, and to 
my mind no name is better than the 
"morning watch." 

This is not a new idea. Moses kept this 
early hour of the day for God, and we read 
that it was then that God met him face to 
face. David eight different times in the 
Psalms speaks of meeting God in the early 
morning, and in almost every instance tells 
us of the blessing which followed. In 
Isaiah 50: 4, in the Revised Version we read, 
"The Lord God hath given me the tongue 
of them that are taught, that I should know 
how to sustain with words him that is 
weary; he wakeneth morning by morning, 
he wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that 
are taught." This text really presents to us 
the foundation for the morning watch with 
Christ. We have 

First, His desire to be with us, for he 
wakens us. 

Second, A special appointment, for it ism 
the morning, before the work of the day 
has begun. 

Third, It is a daily occurrence, because it 
is morning by morning. 

Fourth, In this verse we have not only 
the trained tongue, but also the trained ear. 



12 Day by Day. 

Could anything be more important to-day 
for the church ? In the old Roman time the 
night was divided into four watches, — from 
six to nine the evening watch, from nine to 
twelve the midnight watch, from twelve to 
three the cock-crowing, from three to six 
the morning watch, and it is as if Jesus 
stood by the couch of every one of his re- 
deemed ones to say, "I have watched with 
you through the hours of the night, and 
now I bid you rise and watch with me for 
a little time." In Psalm 121 the Psalmist 
says, "He that keepeth Israel shall neither 
slumber nor sleep." 



Second Day. 

Preparing to See the King. 

Of course it is possible to pray to God at 
any time and in any place. That man is to 
be pitied who has not learned in the face of 
some sore temptation, or in some trial when 
like Peter he felt himself to be sinking, to 
cry out, " Lord, save, or I perish." But the 
prayer of the morning watch is of a differ- 
ent kind. It may not be spoken prayer at 
all. It is rather difficult to suggest a form 
for such petitions. The following limits 
may, however, be profitably observed. 

First, Remember you are going to meet 
your Master; therefore be very reverent, 
and, as you would not rush hurriedly into 
the presence of an earthly king, wait quietly 
before him until you are very sure that you 
have a vision of his face. 

Second, Remember that you have come 
not so much to talk with him as to listen to 
his message to you. The trouble with the 
13 



14 Day by Day. 

most of us as Christians is found in the fact 
that we have tried to talk to him too much 
and given him too little opportunity to 
direct our efforts and our thoughts for the 
day. Wait patiently before him, and then 
say, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant hear- 
eth." He will never disappoint you. 

Third, Remember as you wait in the 
morning watch that he has written his 
thoughts for you in his own word which 
we call the Bible. In this book there is 
some message which will meet the tempta- 
tions through which you are to pass this 
very day. Do not leave the morning watch 
until after quiet meditation he has directed 
your thought to some particular verse or 
passage; then rise in the strength of that 
Scripture and rest assured that you will be 
victorious through the day. 

Finally, Since you have met your Master, 
take a deep breath of the presence of 
Christ, always keeping this thought in 
mind, that you can breathe out to the world 
only as much as you breathe in of him in 
your time of quiet waiting, and that the 
breathing in must in every case precede the 
breathing out. 

A dear friend has sent the following piece 



Preparing to See the King. 15 

of poetry, written by a friend of his after 
learning the lesson of the morning watch: 

" At the gray dawn, while yet the world is sleeping, 
And the sweet matins of the birds begin, 
One who hath held me in his holy keeping 
Stands at the threshold, waiting to come in. 

" Oft has he knocked to give me gentle warning ; 

My heart seemed willing, but my flesh, how weak ! 
Until one morning, O that blessed morning 
When my own name I heard him speak ! 

" Yes, 't was my name ; no other voice could speak it 
To stir my heart and melt my very soul ; 
And I arose so quickly to obey it, 

Flung wide the door, and gave him full control. 

" O, then I feasted on divinest beauty, 
The altogether lovely, loving One, 
While blessing me, threw radiance round each duty 
That in his name should on that day be done. 

" Peace fell upon me while to him I listened ; 
And in that sacred hour I talked with Christ 
As ne'er before, and we together christened 
With tears of joy, new joy, our sacred tryst. 

" Can I afford to miss such rare communion ? 
To let the health of my own soul decline? 
May Christ forbid ; his grace secures the union 
While I am truly his, as he is mine." 



Third Day. 
His Plan for Us. 

That God has a plan for the lives of his 
children must be apparent to every thought- 
ful student, whether he studies himself or 
the word of God. I know it must be true 
because it is like him to have a plan; he 
could not rule in anything so important as 
a life without it; and since he has made it 
plain that there is nothing one could give in 
exchange for his soul or his life when he 
says, ''What shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul?" we are perfectly sure that 
since he has a plan in everything material 
he must have one for us, however insig- 
nificant or however important our lives 
may be. 

The student of the Bible surely must be 
impressed with this plan when he reads 
such a verse of Scripture as " For we are 
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus 
unto good works, which God hath before 
ordained that we should walk in them " 

16 



His Plan for Us. 17 

(Eph. 2: 10). The word "workmanship" 
is literally "poem," so that the verse would 
read, "We are his poems." No great poet 
has ever written without the most carefully 
prepared plan, and real poetry stands for 
harmony. What peace and joy there 
would be in our lives, therefore, did we but 
yield ourselves to the purpose of our God! 

No one has ever yet been able to make a 
cross when putting two pieces of wood 
side by side like this : , but when one 

piece of wood crosses the other in this 
manner -f- a cross is easily made. It is 
when our wills parallel the will of God 
that we have joy, whatever our circum- 
stances may be; it is when they run con- 
trary to his will that we have real crosses 
to bear. Would it not be a good thing, 
therefore, for us to yield ourselves to him 
just at this point ? 

* In full and glad surrender 
I give myself to thee, 
Thine utterly and only 
And evermore to be. 

" O Son of God, who lovest me, 
I will be thine alone, 
And all I have and all I am 
Shall henceforth be thine own." 



18 Day by Day. 

Rest assured that when we do thus yield 
he will begin to work out his plan at once. 
In Philippians, the second chapter and the 
twelfth verse, we are told "to work out 
our own salvation with fear and trembling," 
which is simply the suggestion above 
offered of yielding definitely to Christ, 
while in the thirteenth verse we read, " For 
it is God which worketh in you both to 
will and to do of his good pleasure." And 
you will notice that he gives us the promise 
that he will work not only, but that he will 
" will and do." The will is his plan, the 
doing is his co-operation with us in work- 
ing it out. It may be well for us to get a 
little more clearly in mind just what this 
plan may be. 

First, It is his desire that we should be 
holy " According as he hath chosen us in 
him before the foundation of the world, 
that we should be holy and without blame 
before him in love" (Eph. 1:4). Holiness 
is not something that a man is or does, but 
it is God in him. We have as much holi- 
ness as we have of God, neither more nor 
less. A holy life is one that walks with 
God (Gen. 5 : 24), abides in Christ (John 
15:4), is rooted and built up in him (Col. 



His Plan for Us. 19 

2:7); and you will notice that the being 
rooted comes first, the building up second; 
the secret life must equal the public life of 
a Christian, or there will be failure. The 
holy life is one that is risen with Christ 
(Col. 3: 1). God cannot be satisfied with 
anything less than this. 

Second, It is God's will that we should 
be sanctified. " For this is the will of God, 
even your sanctification " (1 Thess. 4:3). 
The thought of sanctification is much the 
same as that of holiness above suggested; 
it does not carry with it the idea of sinful- 
ness. But in addition to the thought above 
mentioned there is the idea of separation. 
Separation is twofold in its aspect; it is 
both "from" and "to," from the world 
and unto Christ; no one can lose his taste 
for the world until he has a glimpse of his 
Master. An empty life is an unsatisfactory 
life always. 

Third, It is the will of God that we 
should be like Christ. In Gal. 4: 19 we 
read, "My little children, of whom I travail 
in birth again until Christ be formed in 
you." In very many ways God is seeking 
to bring us to the likeness of his dear Son; 
let us not draw back from his touch. 



20 Day by Day. 

Sometimes through suffering, often in 
temptation, frequently in the darkness and 
often in the light, God is dealing with us; 
and it is a possible thing, as the apostle 
Paul declares, for us to "be transfigured" 
and to show forth in all that we do the 
likeness of Him whose we are and whom 
we ought to serve. God can be satisfied 
with nothing less than an all-controlling 
desire on the part of his children that they 
should be like his own dear Son. 



" I cannot always see the way that leads 

To heights above ; 
I sometimes quite forget he leads me on 

With hand of love ; 
But yet I know the path must lead me to 

Immanuel's land : 
And when I reach life's summit I shall know 

And understand. 



" I cannot always trace the onward course 

My ship must take ; 
But, looking backward, I behold afar 

Its shining wake 
Illumined with God's light of love, and so 

I onward go, 
In perfect trust that he who holds the helm 

The course must know. 



His Plan for Us. 21 

" I cannot always see the plan on which 

He builds my life, 
For oft the sound of hammers, blow on blow, 

The noise of strife, 
Confuse me till I quite forget he knows 

And oversees 
And that in all details with his good plan 

My life agrees. 

" I cannot always know and understand 

The Master's rule ; 
I cannot always do the tasks he gives 

In life's hard school : 
But I am learning, with his help, to solve 

Them, one by one, 
And when I cannot understand, to say, 

* Thy will be done.' " 



Fourth Day. 
Some Things Presupposed. 

I presuppose three things in this portion 
of my message. 

First, That my reader is a Christian. 
This word could make little impression on 
one who never yet has yielded himself to 
Christ in that act of surrender and faith 
which constitutes him a child of God by 
regeneration. 

Second, That every one whose eye lights 
upon this page is conscious of failure. 
This word is not for the self-righteous 
person who is not conscious of his weak- 
ness, who therefore feels that he has not 
sinned and does not sin. "If we say we 
have no sin, we deceive ourselves." 

Third, That all of us are weary of the 
life of failure and compromise, and long 
for something better. Others have attained 
unto it, why may not we ? 



In the light of these suppositions, for all 

22 



Some Things Presupposed. 23 

who would be more like Christ the 
following suggestions are made: 

First, Be much alone with God and his 
word, and wait before him until he begins 
at least the revelation of his plan for your 
life. It is no more disastrous for a man's 
arm to be out of its socket than for a life to 
be contrary to God. 

Very many have failed just here. They 
are too busy to spend much time alone 
with him, or too much in a hurry when 
once they do try to pray, to get the ear of 
the King. As Mr. Spurgeon used to say, 
"Be still and know that I am God," is a 
necessary injunction for the most of us. 

Second, Then begin to walk with him, 
taking no step without his guidance, and 
undertaking no plan without his control- 
ling presence. 

" A step at a time I'll trust him, 
Not wishing to look ahead : 
' Your father knoweth ; ' he said it; 
There's nothing for me to dread." 

Third, Make quick confession of every 
mistake or failure. The smallest sin un- 
confessed will rob you of both peace and 
power. The difficulty with the Christian 



24 Day by Day. 

is not so much in the fact that he sins as 
that he does not immediately confess the 
sin. That unkind word, that hasty judg- 
ment which did another an injury, that 
secret sin, which no one knows but your- 
self and God, must be confessed before 
you go on to seek either peace or power. 

Fourth, Recognize in everything that all 
that you have belongs to Christ because he 
redeemed you, because God gave you to 
him, and also because you have yielded 
yourself to his mastery; your time, your 
strength, your influence are all his. 

" Father, the day is thine, 

Framed with minutest care ; 
In need foreseen let love serene 

Prevent me everywhere. 
Guide, lest through erring sight, 

Through dull or clouded sense, 
One touch I miss of heaven's own bliss 

In thy deep confidence, 

" A day « prepared ' by thee ! 

Now let thy way be mine, 
That I may trace soul meeting-place 

And love's own countersign 
In joys, in homeliest cares, 

In toil its hours shall bring, 
Thus raised by thee to high degree 

As service for the King." 



Fifth Day. 
His Co-operation. 

God has promised to work with us if we 
are abiding in Christ; better still, he has 
promised to work in us. The following he 
has pledged in his word: 

i. To work for us. 

2. To work with us. 

}. To work through us. 

4. To work in us. 

How then can we fail ? 

We often try to use God. It is just as 
well to learn at once that the higher posi- 
tion is for us to yield ourselves to him that 
he may use us. "Not my will but thine 
be done," is the secret of power and the 
pledge of angels' visits. Rest assured that 
as soon as you yield to him all the power 
of the heavenly life is at your disposal for 
his glory. We too frequently ask him to 
walk with us, when the deepest lesson that 
we can learn in the morning watch is to be 
taught that the way that leads to victory 
2 5 



26 Day by Day. 

is that path in which we walk with him. 
Hudson Taylor in the beginning of his great 
missionary enterprise was desirous of using 
God for the blessing of humanity; but 
finally, he says, he heard God speaking to 
him plainly, saying, "I have made up my 
mind to save inland China; if you will come 
and walk with me, I will do it through 
you;" and the work of the China Inland 
Mission is one of the miracles of modern 
times. Christ's promise of co-operation in 
the building up of a beautiful life is plainly 
written in the Scriptures and is a never-fail- 
ing inspiration. 

There is in the word of God a threefold 
use of the word "salvation," past, present, 
and future, so that, if one should ask you 
whether you are saved and you should say, 
" Yes," you speak truthfully. If he puts the 
the same question, and you answer, " I am 
being saved," you are quite as near the 
truth; but, if he put it to you once again, 
and you reply, " I shall be saved," you have 
God's word as a foundation for your state- 
ment. We have been saved from sin's pen- 
alty; we are ''day by day" being saved 
from sin's power; we shall one day be 
saved from the presence or the body of sin. 



His Co-operation. 27 

Paul presents the same thought to us in 
2 Cor. 1: 10, "Who delivered us from so 
great a death, and doth deliver; in whom 
we trust that he will yet deliver us." A 
past, a present, and a future deliverance is 
in his mind. We are living now in the 
present, and with the temptations and trials 
and discouragements that are liable to meet 
us to-day we have to do. 

That word of Paul's in Phil. 2: 12 is not 
understood until we have the threefold 
thought of salvation above presented. 
"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have al- 
ways obeyed, not as in my presence only, 
but now much more in my absence, work 
out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling." We are to work out what he 
works in, and in the promise of his con- 
stant presence and assistance. You will 
notice that the Scripture declares that he 
works both "to will " and "to do." 

His will for our lives we have already 
studied; at the present time it is the doing 
with which we are to occupy our minds. I 
cannot conceive how God could be satis- 
fied with anything less than our desired 
likeness to his own dear Son. I cannot 
find any place in the New Testament where 



28 Day by Day. 

the Christian life is presented under any 
other figure than that which is inspiring. 
If it is a race we must run, the crown is 
promised us because he will be with us and 
we run looking unto him. If it is a fight 
we must wage, then victory may be ours 
because in his infinite mercy he has pro- 
vided for us the whole armor of God. In- 
deed, as has been said, there is no excuse 
for failure in the New Testament. Granted 
the fact that we have with us the weakness 
of the flesh, we must also acknowledge that 
we "can do all things through Christ which 
strengtheneth " us; and likewise learn Paul's 
lesson in which he declares, "For the law 
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
made me free from the law of sin and 
death" (Rom. 8:2). 

In John's Gospel there is presented a 
threefold vision of the Christian's life. In 
the third chapter and the fifth verse it is life 
bestowed upon us as the gift of God. This 
is the common position of the children of 
God, and the claiming of it means an ordi- 
nary Christian experience. John the fourth 
chapter and the fourteenth verse, in which 
Jesus declares, "The water that I shall 
give him shall be in him a well of wa- 



His Co-operation. 29 

ter springing up into everlasting life," is 
a picture of a full life, and we have the 
vision of communion, the idea of water 
seeking its own level; and it is only the 
child of God whose life is filled with the 
presence of Christ who enjoys communion 
and therefore victory. John the seventh 
chapter and the thirty-eighth verse, "He 
that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath 
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water," gives us the thought of an 
overflowing life; and in the idea of the 
river we have not only the thought of 
freedom, but also the thought of fruitful- 
ness, for where the river runs fruit is 
abundant. It is inconceivable that God 
could expect of any of his redeemed ones 
less than an overflowing life. It is in order 
that this might be realized in the experience 
of his children that he has given us the co- 
operation of his Son. 



Sixth Day. 
The Holy Spirit's Presence. 

It would be a rare privilege for any one 
of us to have the Lord Jesus Christ in person 
enter our homes, for us to sit at his feet 
and talk with him; but, if he were here in 
person, he could not be with you if he 
tarried with me. To meet this difficulty, the 
Holy Ghost has come. 

Dr. Arthur T. Pierson says that the Holy 
Ghost is in this world to be to every be- 
liever what Jesus Christ would have been if 
he had tarried in the flesh. One can quite 
understand that, if Jesus in the flesh stood 
by him in his business, walked with him on 
the streets, dwelt with him in his home, 
victory would be assured. It is a plain 
teaching of the Scripture that in the person 
of the Holy Ghost this is possible; why, 
therefore, need we fail ? In this time of 
quiet waiting, therefore, before God, if all 
of this is to be realized in us, 

First, Let us be sure of what he desires 
30 



The Holy Spirit's Presence. 31 

us to be. One needs only to let his mind 
dwell prayerfully on the Scriptures to be in- 
stantly persuaded that God would have us 
abstain from fleshly lusts, be separate from 
that which is sinful, reject that which is 
common or unclean; and then by an act 
of our will we ought to say, " I do now 
renounce the things that have caused my 
failure in the past, and whatever tarries in 
my life of sin or weakness is there against 
my will." 

Second, We must be sure in this time of 
waiting as to what we may expect from 
him. If you will consult again the story of 
the Samaritan woman, you will remember 
that Jesus said to her, "If thou knewest, 
thou wouldest have asked." We do not 
know; therefore we have not asked. There 
is not a circumstance with which we might 
be confronted in which he would not be 
powerful to deliver, not a burden to be 
placed upon us which he could not lift, not 
a condition of mind or of heart-breaking 
discouragement and despair which he could 
not banish. Let him have his way with you 
just for to-day, and it will be a day of 
heaven upon the earth. 

First, There must be absolute allegiance 



32 Day by Day. 

to him. In John 7: 39 we read, " But this 
spake he of the Spirit, which they that 
believe on him should receive; for the Holy 
Ghost was not yet given, because that 
Jesus was not yet glorified," and then again 
in Acts 2:33 we f in d this word: ''There- 
fore, being by the right hand of God 
exalted, and having received of the Father 
the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath 
shed forth this, which ye now see and 
hear." And Peter's explanation of Pente- 
cost is that the Son of man is glorified and 
therefore the Holy Ghost is poured out. 
When we give him the throne-room of our 
lives, and have no will but his, when there 
has been in our individual experience a 
coronation of Christ as there shall one day 
be a coronation of him in all the world, 
and he shall be King of kings, glory shall 
flood our souls and power shall be our 
natural possession. 

Second, Obey him without question. In 
the working of the first miracle as recorded 
in John, when there was no wine for the 
wedding-feast, the mother of Jesus said to 
the servants, "Whatsoever he saith unto 
you, do it," and as a result of their obe- 
dience the water blushed into wine. As 



The Holy Spirit's Presence. 33 

great a change as the difference between 
water and wine will come into our lives 
when his least suggestion as well as his 
most direct command is unquestionably 
obeyed. When he said, " Lo, I am with 
you alway," he meant just what he said; 
so count on him to-day and let him do his 
best. 



Seventh Day. 
Our Failure. 

I do not know that any one has ever in- 
fluenced my life more than the late Rev. G. 
H. C. MacGregor, of London. He was a 
true man of God, and on the matter of our 
failure I quote from his book "A Holy Life 
and How to Live It." 

In the search after a better Christian 
experience, in which we are engaged, our 
first duty is to find what has hindered us in 
time past, and what is hindering us now. 
That we have been hindered, we acknowl- 
edge. We are not what we ought to be; 
we are not what we might be. We are 
sorrowfully conscious that our Christian 
experience hitherto has been full of dis- 
appointment. We are not as holy as we 
hoped we should be in the day when we 
closed with Christ. What has hindered 
our progress ? That we must now discover. 

God's first call to the seeker after holiness 
is a call to self-examination. He demands 

34 



Our Failure. 35 

that this work be done with uncompromis- 
ing thoroughness. There must be no 
covering up of corners where forbidden 
things lie. There must be no excusing sin 
by calling it infirmity. No pride of past 
spiritual experience must be allowed to 
hinder the severity of our search. We 
must let God reveal to us the very worst 
about us, and must confess with shame 
and sorrow the sin he discovers. To 
profess to be what we are not is fatal to 
holiness. Our only hope of improvement 
lies in our being absolutely honest with 
God about our present condition. 

At the Old Testament passover times, 
when God was coming to his people with 
special blessing, the command went forth 
to the Jews: " Purge your houses of leaven. 
Let no leaven be found in them." This 
command was most jealously obeyed. The 
Jew knew that into the house where leaven 
was tolerated blessing could not come. It 
displeased God, and kept God out. So no 
room was left unswept; every nook and 
cranny in which leaven might lodge was 
carefully searched, and searched with 
lighted candles; and all the leaven found 
was gathered and cast out. Even after this 



36 Day by Day. 

was done, lest any should have escaped 
the search, the Jew had a formula which 
was called the execration of the leaven, by 
which he said, as it were before God, " 1 
have done what I can to remove the leaven; 
if there be any more in the house, I curse 
it, and disown it altogether." 

But what the Jew did we must do. If 
we wish the Lord to come into our lives in 
fulness of blessing, we must search those 
lives with jealous care, to discover all in 
them that is likely to offend him, and we 
must, by his grace, cast it out. Even after 
this is done there must be no boasting that 
our lives are clean, but rather, in the con- 
sciousness that we do not know how far 
we have sinned, a humble, chastened wait- 
ing on him, that he may cleanse us. To 
this work of examination we now set our- 
selves. " Let us search, and try our ways, 
and turn again unto the Lord." 

There is nothing too small to be passed 
over. A little sin to-day may mean an 
awful defeat to-morrow. 



Eighth Day. 
Our Secret Life. 

Peter speaks of the hidden man of the 
heart. It is with him we have to do just 
now. 

We may as well be honest with God, for 
our secret sins are in the light of his 
countenance. 

We begin with our secret life. Let us 
examine it. Each of us lives a life which 
only God knows and sees. It is a life of 
thoughts that never find expression, of am- 
bitions that are never realized, of resolu- 
tions that are never performed. It is a life 
of whose existence our dearest ones may 
never have dreamed, a life that we live 
alone. Yet how much sin there is in it! 
When the light of God falls into those 
secret chambers of ours, no wonder we 
start as if we were stricken. For see what 
it reveals. 

(a) Evil thoughts. Evil thoughts about 
God, murmurings at his dealings, rebellion 
37 



38 Day by Day. 

against his will, complainings against the 
place in which he has put us. Thoughts 
sometimes so dark that if expressed they 
would find fit expression in words of blas- 
phemy. Thoughts never uttered to others, 
but only whispered in the silence of the 
soul. Evil thoughts about men, angry, en- 
vious, spiteful, malicious; thoughts whose 
full expression in words would be cursing 
and in deeds murder. That they do not 
find such expression is due only to the 
grace of God within us. 

(b) Evil imaginations and desires. They 
are found in our hearts. Imaginings are 
there, impure and unholy, sometimes, alas, 
cherished and gloated over; imaginings 
that appear with terrible vividness in our 
dreams. And these imaginings are fol- 
lowed quickly by strong and passionate de- 
sire that might find its outcome in acts foul 
and unclean, were it not for the restraining 
influence of God's Spirit. These are two 
forms in which the leaven of sin appears in 
these secret chambers of our life. But our 
Lord in his description of the heart tells of 
others. We shall read it, praying that as 
we read it we may be broken down before 
God, and all our pride and wretched self- 



Our Secret Life. 39 

conceit removed. "From within, out of 
the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, 
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, 
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lascivi- 
ousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, 
foolishness" (Mark 7: 21). What an awful 
discovery God's holiness makes when it 
shines on us! There is leaven, there is sin, 
in our secret life, and it has hindered us in 
our pursuit of holiness. 



Ninth Day. 

Our Reading and Our Dress. 

Let us next examine ourselves regarding 
our habits of reading. Reading occupies a 
large portion of our time and exercises a 
great influence on our life. Books influence 
us, and sometimes the influence is not 
good. In the books we have been reading 
we may discover the secret of much mis- 
chief. You have, it may be, noticed a 
decay in your spiritual life. You have less 
joy in Christ than you used to have, less 
zeal in his service, less freedom and power 
in prayer. This is the explanation of it: 
You have been reading sceptical books, in 
which dishonor is done to Christ and to the 
word of God, until unbelief has crept into 
your heart and drawn you away from the 
living God. Or you have been reading 
general literature, books of all kinds, good 
and bad, helpful and harmful, until they 
have almost crushed the Bible and books of 
devotion out of your life. What wonder, 
4 o 



Our Reading and Our Dress. 41 

then, if there is decay and defeat in your 
life? You have been poisoning your mind 
and at the same time neglecting the divine 
antidote; you have been feeding on husks 
and starving your soul by refusing to feed 
on the heavenly manna. To-day, as we 
hear our Lord say to us, "Consider your 
ways," let us take him to our book-shelves 
and ask him to cast out all that displeases 
him. 

The next matter that calls for thorough 
examination is our habits of eating and 
drinking and dress. To speak of these 
things as having to do with holiness may 
seem strange to some. Many will resent 
the mention of them, but our self-examina- 
tion must be thorough. Our Lord long ago 
warned us that the questions, "What shall 
we eat? What shall we drink? Where- 
withal shall we be clothed ? " might occupy 
too prominent a place in the hearts of his 
people. And without doubt they do. Self- 
indulgence in these matters is to-day one 
of the greatest hindrances to personal 
holiness. 

How it must grieve the Lord Jesus to see 
the tables of his people loaded with useless 
luxuries, when thousands of the poor, 



42 Day by Day. 

whom he left as a legacy to his church, are 
almost perishing for want! How sad the 
heart of Christ must be to see Christians in- 
dulging themselves in the use of that which 
is causing the ruin of the souls and bodies 
of thousands, and leading directly to nine- 
teen-twentieths of the crime, vice, and 
misery of our land! What can our Saviour 
think when he sees his professed followers 
ministering to their pride and vanity in the 
matter of dress, conforming themselves to 
the unbelieving world about them, instead 
of listening to him who has said, "Take 
my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I 
am meek and lowly in heart"? In these 
homely but most practical matters let us 
search, and try our ways, and turn again to 
the Lord. 



Tenth Day. 
Our Home Life. 

It is quite easy to be a true Christian in 
the presence of a crowd; the real test of 
one's loyalty to Christ, however, is in the 
home. 

The call now comes to us to examine our 
home life, to question ourselves as to how 
we live before our families. 

Christianity is pre-eminently a religion for 
the home. In our home life we may find, 
many will find, the secret of past failure 
in holiness. Sins have been tolerated in 
the home of which we should have been 
ashamed outside. In our home life is found 
the leaven which has hindered the Lord 
from blessing us. 

It may be in the form of temper, that 
terrible disturber of domestic peace. How< 
much damage this one form of sin has 
done! What misery it has caused! Quar- 
rels between husband and wife, hot and 
angry words flung to and fro, accusations 
43 



44 Day by Day. 

and recriminations from those who before 
God vowed to love one another. Quarrels 
between mistress and servant; nagging, 
carping, and scolding, leading to irritation 
and bitterness on the one side, and stub- 
born sullenness on the other. Quarrels be- 
tween brothers and sisters, embittering 
family life and destroying the peace of the 
home. 

Or it may be in the form of selfishnes.s 
and thoughtlessness, things that cause an 
amount of pain which those who inflict it 
never intend. A husband coming home 
from his work, by snarling and growling 
because dinner is not ready, or the house 
not in order, can pain beyond expression a 
loving and devoted wife, who because the 
children have been ill has been kept behind 
with the housework. A brother bursting 
into the house may by his boisterous merri- 
ment destroy the repose of an invalid sister, 
set her nerves tingling, and seriously retard 
her recovery. 

These may seem little things, but noth- 
ing is really little which offends God. They 
may seem little, but have we been guilty 
of them ? Have we been hot-tempered, 
thoughtless, and selfish in our homes ? 



Our Home Life. 45 

Then no wonder our Christian experience 
has been unsatisfactory. If these things 
have been wrong in our life, let us seek 
grace to put them right. For, though they 
may seem small, they are of vital impor- 
tance. Even if they are little matters, they 
are flies in the ointment that destroy its 
savor, morsels of leaven in the house that 
defile it and keep the Saviour away. 



Eleventh Day. 
Our Social and Business Life. 

I take it for granted that we have dealt 
with God faithfully about our home ways; 
let us ask him now to deal with us about 
our social ways. In the practices of society 
there is much that hinders holiness, and 
possibly in the way in which we have 
acted when in company with our friends 
may be found the secret of our failure as 
Christians. The world is almost as hostile 
to Christ to-day as it was when the Bible 
was written. It is still true that the friend- 
ship of the world is enmity with God. And 
society as a whole is thoroughly worldly; 
the spirit of the world reigns in it. So our 
social ways, which are determined very 
much by the general practice, are apt to be 
such as are displeasing to Christ. 

Christ teaches men to despise wealth; 

society teaches them to worship it. Christ 

says, " Laying aside all lying, speak ye 

every one the truth to his neighbor;" 

4 6 



Our Social and Business Life. 47 

society commands us to hide our feelings 
under expressions that are sometimes abso- 
lutely false. Christ bids us put away all 
evil-speaking; society bids us make it al- 
most the staple of conversation. How the 
insincerity and hollowness of our social 
life must grieve the Lord Jesus! What can 
he think of our pretended love for those 
whom in our lives we hate, of our pro- 
fessed admiration of those whose gifts we 
envy, of the respect paid to people whom 
in heart we despise ? The masking and 
shamming and petty deceit of much of our 
social life must pain him beyond measure. 
Let us ask him to reveal to us our sin and 
in this very difficult sphere of life to lead 
us in his own way. 

Ere we close our work of examination 
let us search and try our business ways. 
Some may shrink from this, and say in 
their hearts what some have said openly, 
that a man's religion ought not to be al- 
lowed to interfere with his business. But, 
if a man's religion is not allowed to come 
into his business, it is of a kind that is 
scarce worth having. In the business ways 
of many professing Christians is to be found 
the secret of their failure and defeat. Some 



48 Day by Day. 

who read these pages may have completely 
to change their business life ere they can 
be holy. 

The hindrance to holiness in our business 
life may be of various kinds. It may be the 
character of the business itself. The busi- 
ness may be a God-dishonoring, soul-de- 
stroying one; and the moment that is real- 
ized by the believer, the business must be 
given up at all costs. It may be avarice. 
The business may be right, but the money 
it is bringing in may be occupying a wrong 
place in our heart. It may be debt. This 
is a far more common hindrance to holiness 
than many are aware of. Thousands of 
professing Christians have found in the 
prompt payment of debts a door leading to 
a life of new blessing. It may be thought- 
lessness for the comfort of employees, 
causing pain and misery never intended, 
and bringing reproach on the name of 
Christ. What the sins of our business life 
are, God will reveal to us if we humbly 
ask him now. 

For the present our search is over. But 
what awful discoveries of evil we have 
made, and what an abyss of sinfulness we 
have found within us! In our secret life, 



Our Social and Business Life. 49 

prayerlessness, unbelief, disobedience, evil 
thoughts, evil imaginations, evil desires; 
in our family life, intemperance, selfishness, 
bad temper; in our social life, hypocrisy, 
envy, jealousy, gossip, evil-speaking; in 
our business life, overreaching, deceit, 
avarice, cruelty. And beyond all these a 
heart that is a fount of evil, "deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked." 
No wonder we have failed, when we have 
tolerated so much sin in our lives. How 
the discovery of it should humble us! How 
it should make us cry, " God be merciful to 
us sinners"! 

But now you ask, What is to be done 
with our sin ? First, confess it. Do not 
try to hide it. Do not try to excuse it. Be 
absolutely honest with God about it. Then 
renounce it. Cast it out. Fling it from 
you. But you say, That is just what I 
cannot do. Have you learned that ? Thank 
God if you have, for to have learned your 
own poweriessness to cleanse yourself is to 
have taken the first step towards deliver- 
ance. Conscious of your guilt and of your 
weakness, bring your sins now to the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Yield yourself to him. Say 
to him, — 



50 Day by Day. 

" I bring my sins to thee, 
The sins I cannot count, 
That all may cleansed be 
In thy once opened fount," 

and as you kneel before him you will hear 
his word of mercy, "Then will I sprinkle 
clean water upon you and ye shall be clean; 
from all your filthiness and from all your 
idols will I cleanse you " (Ezek. 36: 25). 
What you cannot do God can do. And he 
will do it now if you yield yourself without 
reserve to him. If you put yourself into 
his hand, he, who by his holy light has re- 
vealed the hidden sin, will turn his hand on 
you, and thereby purge away your dross 
and take away all your alloy. 

I do not believe I have ever met with one 
who put these suggestions more fully into 
practice than Rev. George H. C. MacGregor, 
to whom we are indebted for the sugges- 
tions. What was possible for him is cer- 
tainly possible for us all. 



Twelfth Day. 
His Patience. 

" Take thou this day from God a solemn trust 
Which he commits to thee ; and, that it may 
Be well begun, spend its first hours with him. 
He knoweth all thy needs, and hath arranged 
For their supply. Thy pathway, too, this day 
Is marked upon his chart in heaven, and was 
Before ordained that thou shouldst walk therein. 
All through the journey keep thy hand in his, 
For he will surely prove thy safest guide, 
Since he hath planned each step. And, as there 
Come fresh opportunities for service, see 
Thou use each one for God, giving to him 
Glory in word and deed. So, doing all 
As in his sight, when this day's course is run, 
Thou mayst hand its record unto him 
Without misgiving, rendering him account 
As good and faithful steward. If thou thus 
Shalt live each day for him, when sets life's sun, 
Thou shalt receive the Master's own ' Well done.' " 

Since we are all of us conscious of past 
failure, in order that we may not be dis- 
couraged it would be well for us in the next 
morning watch clearly to understand the 
5* 



52 Day by Day. 

nature of our Father with whom we have 
to deal. We must, all of us, have in our 
minds a vision of Christ. It wouid be very 
strange if the conception of the Father were 
not somewhat indefinite. Does it not 
make him seem much nearer to us when 
we hear Jesus say, "He that hath seen 
me hath seen my Father also," and as 
we picture him helping the weak and ex- 
plaining the weakness of his disciples in 
Gethsemane when he found them sleeping 
by saying, "For their eyes were heavy," 
are we not encouraged to push on for the 
future, whatever the past may have been ? 
God's great patience is the natural outcome 
of his nature. There are certain texts of 
Scripture that we should do well to con- 
sider, however, where he is especially pre- 
sented to us. 

Paul is filled with his Spirit when in 
i Thess. 2:7 he said, " But we were gentle 
among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her 
children." A nurse is one who brings 
things down to the comprehension of the 
children with whom she deals; she talks in 
language easy to understand. Has not God 
so dealt with us in his presentation of his 
Son who ever spake in parables, and when 



His Patience. 53 

he would describe heaven makes it to be a 
city of pearly gates and golden streets ? 
These are but hints as to the nature of his 
dealings with each one of us, and we must 
surely bear in mind that it is the very nature 
of God to help us in spite of our weakness 
and because of it. 

In Isa. 66: 13, we read, "As one whom 
his mother comforteth, so will I comfort 
you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusa- 
lem. " This is a promise to Israel, but it be- 
comes more intense for us since God re- 
veals himself in Christ. It is the nature of 
a mother ever to excuse the failure of her 
children, and also to love in spite of that 
failure unto the very end. Mr. Moody 
used to tell the story of the mother whose 
boy was executed on the gallows; she 
could not secure his body, for the law of 
the city demanded that it should be buried 
inside prison walls. She then asked per- 
mission from the governor to be buried 
herself by the side of the boy whom she 
loved in spite of his sin. 

We must not forget that, however griev- 
ously we may have failed in the past, God 
tenderly loves us and waits to lift us up 
once more. 



Thirteenth Day. 
His Patience. 

The Bible is a great picture-book, but no 
story is more plainly told than that of God's 
love for us, which is never affected by our 
sin. Both by direct statement and in 
pictures like the following may we know 
of his patience. 

In Ps. 103: 13 we read, "Like as a father 
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
them that fear him." David wrote this 
after his sorrow on account of Absalom. 
Matthew Henry says: It is thus a father 
pities, when his child is weak in knowledge 
and helps him; when he is froward and 
bears with him; when he is sick, he com- 
forts him; when he has fallen, uplifts him; 
and, when he has offended, forgives him. 
God does all this in infinite perfection. 
Whatever your past failure, sit alone in this 
morning watch to-day, and, looking up 
into his face, say, "My Father;" and he 
will answer with a loving touch that will 
make you strong. 

54 



His Patience. 55 

In Deut. 32: 11, 12, God thus speaks to 
us, "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, 
fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad 
her wings, taketh them, beareth them on 
her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, 
and there was no strange god with him." 
There are two thoughts that are plainly 
brought before us in these verses; first, that 
the eagle stirs up the nest that the little ones 
may leave it; and secondly, when they begin 
to fly, the eagle flies beneath her little ones 
so that when they become weary in flight 
they may rest for a moment on the parent's 
outstretching wings. It is barely possible 
that by the very failure of yesterday God 
may be stirring up the nest to call us out 
into some better and higher service, but it 
is absolutely certain that, whatever may be 
the condition of our lives, underneath us 
will be the everlasting arms and God will 
never leave us, nor will he forsake us. 

In Matt. 2y. 37 we have a most pathetic 
expression, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets, and stonest them 
which are sent unto thee, how often would 
I have gathered thy children together, even 
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings, and ye would not!" It would be 



56 Day by Day. 

almost sacrilege to use this figure, did not 
the Holy Ghost put it in the Bible. We are 
quite sure that two thoughts of comfort 
may be drawn from this picture; first, that 
the mother of these little ones ever stands 
ready to protect her own; and secondly, 
that she gives them warning of the first 
approach of danger. How true this has 
been in our experience, when we began to 
neglect the Bible and the church and the 
Lord's Day, he gave us warning whether 
we heeded it or not; and, had we but lived 
where it was his plan that we should live, 
he would have stood between us and every 
danger, and we should have been more 
than conquerors. If we have failed in the 
past, God has not changed, and he loves us 
in spite of that failure, and the old happy 
relations may be sustained again if we will 
but come back to him in loving loyalty. 

In Ezek. 34:12 we have still another Old 
Testament picture: " As a shepherd seeketh 
out his flock in the day that he is among 
his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek 
out my sheep, and will deliver them out of 
all places where they have been scattered 
in the cloudy and dark day." This, too, is 
for Israel, but it is likewise for us because 



His Patience. 57 

Jesus is the shepherd. Two things are true 
regarding the sheep and the shepherd in 
the Eastern country. First, A wandering 
sheep cannot find its way back to the fold; 
and second, the moment the sheep submits 
itself to the shepherd, it is borne in safety 
back to the place of sure refuge. It is not 
at all likely if we have stepped out of com- 
munion because of failure that we shall 
come back again to Christ of ourselves; we 
must stop and hear him calling us, and we 
must just submit ourselves to him, and he 
will do all the rest. 

In Mai. 3: 3 we read, " And he shall sit 
as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he 
shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge 
them as gold and silver, that they may offer 
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." 
And it is well for us to keep constantly in 
our thoughts the fact that God will not let 
us go until we are as he would have us be. 
The refiner purifies the silver until he can 
see his own face reflected in it, and God 
will keep in touch with us until we reflect 
the likeness of his dear Son. 



Fourteenth Day. 

Our Need. 

11 Dear Saviour, I have naught to plead 
In earth beneath or heaven above, 
But just my own exceeding need 
And thine exceeding love. 

" The need will soon be past and gone, 
Exceeding great, but quickly o'er; 
The love unbought is all thine own, 
And lasts forevermore." 

It must surely be encouraging to us in our 
meditations for this morning watch to real- 
ize that our need is always met by the 
revelation of our God. We cannot think 
of a condition of weakness which may not 
be offset by the appropriation of his 
strength. In the third chapter of Joel and 
the sixteenth verse we read, "The Lord 
will be the hope of his people." The name 
of the Deity is in small capitals, and there- 
fore the meaning is Jehovah, and since this 
verse comes at the end of the canon of the 
Scriptures the simplest interpretation would 
be that all that Jehovah has been in the past 
58 



Our Need. 59 

the prophet means that he shall now be to 
his people in the present, and certainly in 
the future, because he changes not. 

We must see God in his dealings with his 
people if we would understand him, for he 
is a revelation, not an explanation. He is 
our light; therefore the path of duty will be 
plain and we need not walk in darkness. 
He is our refuge, which signifies a high place ; 
consequently we may live above the tur- 
moil and strife of life. He is our shepherd, 
which is just a hint as to his tenderness. 
If we read of his dealings with Adam, we 
know how he seeks the sinner; if we study 
him in connection with Jacob, we shall see 
his patience with the disobedient; and, if 
we read the story of David's being re- 
claimed, we shall know something of how 
he deals with wanderers in all generations. 
Just so he will deal with us in our need. 

First, He is said to be "the hope of his 
people." There is something cheering 
about the very word; it is the engine that 
keeps the world in action, the rainbow that 
spans the cloudy sky of our being, the arch 
that holds our nature still in the tumults 
about us. We are saved by hope; we re- 
joice in hope; hope is our goal at the end of 



60 Day by Day. 

life, and it is our anchor at the present time; 
the absence of it makes life desolate and 
death a despair; it is cheering therefore to 
know that he, the Jehovah of the Old Testa- 
ment, is the hope of his people. 

Second, The marginal reading signifies 
that he is also " the place of repair" for his 
people. I do not know any revelation of 
him more needed than this. There are 
three reasons why God's children need con- 
stant repair. 

i. Because of their own error. 

2. Because of the fault of others, and, 

3. Simply because they have been faith- 
ful in service. Some slight error will put 
us out of communion with God, and we 
need the quick touch of his hand to stay the 
progress of what otherwise might be a fatal 
disease. In the fifty-first Psalm David asks 
forgiveness because of his own sin, but in 
the fifty-ninth Psalm he craves forgiveness 
because of the sins of others. The Kaiser 
Wilhelm crossing the ocean the other day 
broke a blade in her wheel. It is supposed 
that she struck a derelict, which is a vessel 
without a crew or compass, in other words, 
abandoned; and many a man has lost fel- 
lowship with Christ because of the sin of 



Our Need. 61 

another with whom he was brought in con- 
tact, for men are derelicts as well as ships. 
But it is also true that the vessel that simply 
does her duty in crossing the ocean must 
frequently go to the dry dock and be over- 
hauled. It will certainly be cheering to us 
in this morning watch to know that the 
Lord is the place of repair for his people. 

Third, Another marginal reading sug- 
gests to us that he is the harbor of his peo- 
ple. It has been said that no ship provides 
its own harbor and no sinner his own Sa- 
viour. A harbor is a place for the taking on 
of the cargo, and in him we have received 
both spiritual and temporal blessings, such 
as pardon, peace, and love, time, talent, and 
money; but we have received only that we 
may give out to others. A vessel con- 
stantly receiving a cargo and never discharg- 
ing it is an unprofitable investment. 

A harbor is also a place of refuge, and 
that Christian who has not learned to flee to 
God in the time of temptation has missed 
one of the best of lessons. Temptation is 
not sin; yielding is sin; but the very mo- 
ment the temptation appears it is well to 
flee to him who is always more than con- 
queror. 



62 Day by Day. 

A harbor is also a place out from which 
vessels sail to the highways of the sea, and 
the day will come to us all very likely when 
out from the harbor of God as we see him 
to-day we shall sail with our faces set to- 
wards eternity, and then there will be a 
change in our vision of God; for all that 
has come to us of hints of his love in the 
Bible and suggestions of his tenderness and 
faithfulness in our following after him shall 
be realized in the fulness of his glory, and 
we shall be like him, for we shall see him 
as he is. 

" I need thee every hour, 
Stay thou near by ; 
Temptations lose their power 
When thou art nigh." 



Fifteenth Day. 
His Longing. 

One needs only to turn over the pages of 
his Bible very carefully in order to find out 
just what God's longing for his life may be. 
A knowledge of the word of God is essen- 
tial to an acquaintance with the mind of 
God. His principles plainly presented there 
will guard us against mistakes and fanciful 
ideas. God does not desire to have his 
children walk in darkness and uncertainty, 
but it is his will that we should walk con- 
stantly in the light. 

I have somewhere read that "he has his 
purpose for each one of his children. If 
we would know his plan, then we must 
have, 

"First, A heart and will subject to God 
and to his word. 

"Second, An acquaintance with the Holy 
Scriptures. 

" Third, An abject abandonment of life to 
the Spirit's teaching and leading. 
63 



64 Day by Day. 

" Fourth, A heart practised in commun- 
ing with God. 

" Fifth, An absolute confidence that God 
will do for us what is wisest and best. 

"Sixth, Patience which will enable us to 
wait his time and unfoldings. 

"Seventh, An obedient heart to carry out 
his instructions. Failure in any one of these 
conditions will be the measure of our ina- 
bility to discern God's leading. A warped 
judgment cannot accurately weigh evi- 
dence; defective sight is placed out of court 
as a true witness of size, color, or distance. 
A man who is deaf cannot be expected to 
give evidence - about the quality of music; 
so a soul instructed in the written mind of 
God and unaccustomed to intercourse with 
God cannot pass judgment as to what is in 
keeping with God. Happy is the man who 
has a single heart and mind in all this mat- 
ter, for he is not far from discerning the 
will of God." 

If we study carefully the epistles, we 
shall find that wherever a figure is used to 
present the life in Christ there is always the 
possibility of success suggested. If it is 
pictured as a race, the goal is possible and 
the prize may be forthcoming; if it is a con- 



His Longing. 65 

flict, there is a reasonably sure prospect of 
winning a victory. Indeed, if one turns 
over the pages of the New Testament, he 
can find no excuse for failure and certainly 
no license to sin; and, while it is true that 
we have the nature of the flesh with us, 
yet it is likewise true as Paul has said, the 
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets 
us free from the law of sin and death. 

If you hold a knife in your hand and take 
away the support of your fingers, it drops 
instantly because the law of gravitation 
pulls it down. If you remove the support 
and command the knife not to fall, your 
command is of no avail, because the law is 
still in operation; but, if you take a little 
magnet and touch it to the steel of the 
knife, you may remove your support, and, 
while the law of gravitation is still active, 
there is a higher law which offsets it and 
holds the knife in a stationary position. 
Granted the fact that there is a moral law 
that pulls us down constantly, at the same 
time let it be remembered that we may sub- 
mit to the higher law by means of which 
we are more than conquerors. 

First, It is God's longing that we should 
be saved; and, if the eye of any unsaved 



66 Day by Day. 

person lights upon this page, let him re- 
member that all things are now ready for 
him to come to a knowledge of life. God 
says in the Old Testament, " Let the wicked 
forsake his way and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts, and let him return unto the 
Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and 
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon," 
and he declares in the New Testament as 
well as in the Old in parable and by direct 
statement that, though one's sins be like 
scarlet, they may be made white as snow. 

Second, God longs that we shall be like 
Christ. He can be satisfied with nothing 
less than this; therefore the indifferent life, 
the selfish life, the worldly life, of a Chris- 
tian must sorely grieve him. If in anything, 
therefore, our lives have departed from the 
likeness of his dear Son, just to that extent 
we are not living as he would have us live. 
There are certain helps to this likeness to 
Christ. 

i. Familiarity with the word of God. 
By the working of his own power God 
takes his word and changes it into a 
Christlike character, so that we may speak 
and think and live as Jesus would do if he 
were here. 



His Longing. 67 

2. Meditation will help us to become 
more like him; but, just as the vine needs a 
trellis up which it may climb, so our 
thoughts must have a support, and this 
leads us back again to the word of God. 
It is the man who knows his Bible well 
enough to stop occasionally and let its pas- 
sages run through his mind that becomes 
almost unconsciously to himself more and 
more like the Son of God. 

3. Prayer is of inestimable value, and 
that man who has not learned the secret of 
quiet waiting before God in personal prayer 
has failed to acquire one of the most helpful 
agencies in becoming like his Saviour. It 
must also be remembered in this morning 
watch, as we think of God's longing for us, 
that what he longs to have us do and be he 
stands ready to help us do and be. Every 
command of his is coupled with a promise 
of helpfulness; therefore be not dis- 
couraged. If you have met with failure in 
the past, it is not because your heavenly 
Father does not have some great blessing 
for you, but because, having that blessing, 
you yourself were blind to it. Let this 
prayer be offered therefore this morn- 
ing:— 



68 Day by Day. 

First, Lord, let me know thy will con- 
cerning my own life, and I will do it. 

Second, Show me where I have been 
wrong in other days, and every known evil 
with thy help I will forsake. 

Third, Let me take no step from this 
day on without waiting for thine especial 
guidance. 

If this prayer is offered and its promises 
kept, it is possible to enter at once upon a 
heavenly Christian experience. 



Sixteenth Day. 
Things to Remember. 

Our meditations thus far have had to do 
with our general condition and God's gen- 
eral plan concerning all his children. From 
this point the teaching will be specific and 
definite. We have learned of our past 
failure and we are deeply sensible of our 
present need; we have begun following out 
God's plan for us and truly are impressed 
with his deep longing that we should ap- 
prehend that for which we have been ap- 
prehended; now the opportunity will be 
given for a definite acceptance of his will 
and the absolute yielding to his purpose. 
To make the morning watch a blessing, 
certain general principles must necessarily 
be borne in mind. 

First, We must remember that we go to 
meet God; and, as one would approach an 
earthly potentate with reverence, so must 
we come into the presence of our heavenly 
Father, not hurriedly, but with the spirit of 
69 



70 Day by Day. 

quietness, waiting before him for his bless- 
ing. 

Second, When we meet God, there must 
be an act of separation, by which I mean 
that we must entirely put aside earthly 
thoughts, we must forget for the time being 
the cares that have disturbed us; and, 
while this at the first is a very difficult sug- 
gestion to follow, yet after a little time it 
will become perfectly natural. Some one 
has said that a habit is an act repeated so 
many times that it comes to be a part of 
one's being. If we are accustomed to the 
morning watch with Christ, after a little 
time we shall leave our burdens at the door 
of our closet, and our communion with him 
will be a hallowed experience. 

Third, We must call to mind certain things 
such as the following: I am God's child; 
no good thing will be withheld from me; 
and since earthly parents are ready to give 
good things to their children he will bestow 
upon me the gift of the Holy Ghost; this is 
his promise. I know that he loves me; his 
word declares it, my experience justifies it. 
The Holy Ghost is here to make Christ real 
to me, and I may have a blessing as great 
from his presence as if I could actually 



Things to Remember. 71 

touch him in the flesh. And finally we 
must remember that Christ himself at this 
very moment is at God's right hand, our 
intercessor and mediator. 

Fourth, We must have the spirit of con- 
fession. When Isaiah saw the Lord lifted 
up, he immediately saw his own sin, and 
said, ''Woe is me, for I am a man of 
unclean lips." Another writes, "Let our 
confession be honest and full; there is no 
progress in the spiritual life possible if we 
are not absolutely honest with God about 
our present condition." 

Fifth, Then we must believe God. Hav- 
ing confessed our sin, then let us rest as- 
sured that God meant what he said when 
it was written, " If we confess our sins, he 
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
There is a difference between sin and sins. 
God does not forgive sin; he judges it; but 
he does forgive sins, and, though they be 
like the sand of the sea for number, he will 
blot them out of the book of his remem- 
brance. 



Seventeenth Day. 
A Definite Yielding. 

With all that we have learned thus far it 
is not to be forgotten that there must be a 
definite surrender of ourselves to him. It 
is interesting to note that where God calls 
upon us to yield ourselves to him and to 
present our bodies a living sacrifice, and in 
kindred texts presents for our consideration 
the same truth, the aorist tense is always 
used; and this tense of the verb signifies a 
definite action, something which is done 
once and for all, so that we have not only 
the teaching of Scripture, but we have the 
experience of God's own children in all the 
ages of the church to this effect, that great 
blessing has always rested upon the definite 
act of yielding unto him. There can be no 
better time for this than at this present 
moment. 

Then it is to be borne in mind that God 

claims such a surrender as this; and he has 

a right to claim it, for what he asks is 

simply his own. We are his by creation, 

72 



A Definite Yielding. 73 

his by redemption, his by regeneration, and 
his because we have yielded ourselves to 
him, so that in this sense the yielding of 
which I speak is simply taking our hands off 
from that which is God's own property and 
allowing him to have his own way with it. 

Then, too, let us remember that what we 
yield he takes. Our wills may stand in the 
way of great blessing; for, while we do 
belong to God in the ways above enumer- 
ated, yet a life that is not yielded and a will 
that is not surrendered may prevent him 
from accomplishing what in the estimation 
of the world might be a wonderful work. 

And finally let us ever keep in our minds 
the thought that what is his he will take 
care of. This is very important, because so 
many people stirred at meetings or con- 
ventions have yielded themselves to God, 
and after the first day or week or month 
the blessing has seemed to fade away, if 
indeed it does not altogether depart; but 
Andrew Murray says, "This is because you 
do not believe that when God has begun 
the work of absolute surrender in you, and 
when God has accepted your surrender, 
then God holds himself bound to care for 
it and to keep it." We sing in the hymn, 



74 Day by Day. 

" Moment by moment I 'm kept in his love, 
Moment by moment I 've life from above," 

and this is indeed the truth, as many have 
learned to their great joy. There are two 
sides to the surrendered life. 

There are certain things God wants us to 
do, there is a message we must speak, an 
errand upon which we must go, or in other 
words, a life we must live; but the other 
side to the yielded life is equally impor- 
tant, namely, there is something which God 
would desire to accomplish through us. 
We may not know just at the first what 
his way will be, but God will reveal it in his 
word; he is willing to do this. Only let 
our surrender be one of simple, childlike 
faith and undivided trust. There could be 
no better thing for us to do at the present 
time than to sign such a covenant as the 

following: " On this day I definitely 

yield myself to God, promising him that I 
will strive to do whatever he would have 
me do, and pledging him likewise that I 
will permit him to accomplish in my life 
whatever he purposes to do. 

Name 

Date " 



Eighteenth Day. 
Bible-study. 

We might as well try to live our natural 
life without food as our spiritual life with- 
out the word of God. If it is our desire to 
be strong spiritually, we must let the word 
of God dwell in us richly. Every Christian 
has two natures, according to Paul's teach- 
ing, — the nature of the flesh, and the nature 
of the spirit. To live in the flesh is at the 
cost of the spirit, to live in the spirit is at 
the cost of the flesh. Nothing so encour- 
ages spiritual growth as the right form of 
Bible-study. There are certain character- 
istics which must mark the devotional ap- 
proach to the word of God, and let it ever 
be remembered that a certain portion of 
Bible-study must be devotional. There are 
times when critical study is quite in place, 
but never in the quiet hour with God or in 
the morning watch. 

I remember the story of a blind girl who 
was presented with a Bible with raised let- 
75 



76 Day by Day. 

ters. She was an operative in a cotton- 
mill, and the ends of her fingers were cal- 
loused so that she could not read the Bible 
as blind people ordinarily do. After a while 
it occurred to her that she could take off 
the calloused portion of her finger-tips and 
for a single night she could read; then 
every touch meant pain. Finding that it 
was impossible for her to continue her 
study, she made up her mind that she 
would give the book away to her friend 
who was blind. Just as she was about 
giving it up, feeling as if she were parting 
with her best friend, she raised it to her 
lips to kiss it good-by, and by her lips 
read the words, "The Gospel according to 
St. Mark;" and so it came to be true that 
the book which refused to yield its sweet- 
ness to the ordinary touch opened at once 
under the influence of her heart's affection. 

First, We must study the Bible itself, not 
books about the Bible, valuable as they may 
be in themselves. Nothing must ever be 
allowed to take the place of the Bible. It 
is the supreme authority in everything. 

Second, There must be some special line 
of thought pursued. It is well always to 
have the morning Bible-study cumulative. 



Bible-study. 77 

It is not well to attempt too much of a 
task; better one verse faithfully studied and 
appropriated than an entire chapter per- 
functorily read. 

Third, All Bible-study must be in depend- 
ence on the Spirit of God, but devotional 
study especially so. He inspired men to 
write his word; he alone can inspire us to 
read and understand it. 

Fourth, All devotional Bible-study must 
be followed by meditation. This is most 
important, because by meditation we make 
what we read our own. It is to the word 
of God what the process of digestion is to 
the physical life. Meditation is valuable 
only as we have the word of God to 
occupy our thoughts; then it is as a trellis 
to the vine, and he who knows his Bible 
will find it possible in every hour when he 
is alone to let his thoughts quickly turn to 
heaven and to God. Methods of Bible- 
study are of countless number. It is ques- 
tionable whether their presentation is of 
very much value, for what is a successful 
method with one student fails with another. 
The following simple suggestions, how- 
ever, may be made: 

Study it through. That is, in your devo- 



78 Day by Day. 

tional study. Master one verse or one story 
completely; never leave the presence of 
God until you know exactly what is meant 
in this portion of God's word; not only 
take firm hold of it, but let it take firm hold 
of you. 

Pray it in. When once the truth has 
been apprehended, never rise from your 
knees until by an act of your own will that 
truth becomes a part of your life. This 
will become more and more easy as the 
days go by. 

Put it down. What God gives to us in 
the morning watch, it would be well for 
us to write, boiled down to a sentence, on 
the margin of our Bibles. He will give us 
one new thought each day; and, as we 
come the more to understand him, the 
keener will be our appreciation of the 
things he would speak to us. 

Work it out. The lesson learned in the 
quiet hour with God ought to be translated 
into human action. The best commentary 
on the Bible ought to be the Christian; and 
unless our study of God's word makes us 
more gentle, more peaceful, and more 
Christlike, it is well-nigh valueless. 

Pass it on. Give, and it shall be given 



Bible-study. 79 

unto you, is the principle that always 
prevails with God, and, while it is not 
possible for us to have a spiritual conver- 
sation with every one with whom we may 
meet, yet there are certain kindred souls 
with whom we are brought in contact and 
unto whom we might communicate the 
things that God has given to us, the result 
of which will be our own growth in 
spiritual apprehension and our own enrich- 
ment in the knowledge of the gifts of God; 
while, on the contrary, if we selfishly hold 
on to his spiritual gifts, the fountain may 
dry up and his future gifts be withheld. 



Nineteenth Day. 

Prayer. 

Prayer is the most essential exercise for 
the Christian, and the emphatic word in 
this sentence is " exercise." The most of 
us look upon it as a privilege sometimes 
embraced but frequently neglected, until 
we come to the place where we realize that 
it is an exercise and without it we are weak 
children of God, we have not come to the 
place of power. 

There are widely differing opinions con- 
cerning prayer. There are those who say 
that it is useless to pray, for our heavenly 
Father knows what we have need of before 
we ask him. I know of one gentleman 
who told me that he had come to the place 
where his trust was so great that he never 
prayed. There are others who say that 
prayer is fellowship and it is a good thing 
to pray though we can hardly expect that 
God is going to answer our petitions; and 
still others who say that prayer is more 
80 



Prayer. 8i 

than fellowship and, while God does give 
to us the thing that he sees we have need 
of, yet it can hardly be expected that the 
Infinite One would bestow upon his finite 
creatures just the gifts for which they 
make request. 

These are the opinions of men; it is re- 
freshing in the presence of them to turn to 
the word of God and read such sentences 
as these : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he 
that believeth on me, the works that I do 
shall he do also; and greater works than 
these shall he do; because I go unto my 
Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in 
my name, that will I do, that the Father 
may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask 
anything in my name, I will do it" (John 
14: 12-14). And again in Matthew the 
seventh chapter and the seventh verse we 
read, " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, 
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be 
opened unto you." I think it is Andrew 
Murray who says that is not a needless repe- 
tition of appeals, for when we ask we 
receive the gift, when we seek we find the 
giver, and as we knock the door is opened 
unto us, and we are admitted to fellowship. 
So that prayer is fellowship, but it is more 



82 Day by Day. 

than that; we are told that whatsoever we 
ask we shall receive. 

Jesus was a wonderful example in prayer. 
There are four references in each of the 
Gospels presented to us in his prayer life. 

Mark i : 35, " And in the morning, rising 
up a great while before day, he went out, 
and departed into a solitary place, and 
there prayed." He was the Son of God, 
and yet he must rise early in the morning 
and pray, while we, who are poor, weak 
creatures, sometimes allow an entire day to 
pass without approaching God for strength. 
The day that begins with prayer continues 
with praise and ends with a benediction, 
and it is not to be forgotten that this day of 
our Lord's which began with his morning 
prayer ended with the healing of the leper. 
The secret of the life of power is the life 
of prayer. 

Again in Matt. 14: 23, "And when he 
had sent the multitudes away, he went up 
into a mountain apart to pray; and when 
the evening was come, he was there alone." 
He had just worked the wonderful miracle 
of feeding the multitudes, and yet follow- 
ing that we behold him praying. Some 
one has said it is more difficult to use a vie- 



Prayer. 83 

tory than to gain one, and in most cases 
this is true. The most of us have failed 
following some mountain-top experience, 
because we were disposed to live on the 
strength of that vision; and Satan, realizing 
this, submitted us to some sharp temptation 
under the power of which we went down. 
Jesus was always praying before a miracle 
and after a miracle,at the beginning of the day 
and at the end of the day; he was peculiarly 
a man of prayer. What a rebuke he is to 
us in our almost prayerless lives at times! 

In John 11: 41-43 we read, "Then they 
took away the stone from the place where 
the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his 
eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that 
thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou 
hearest me always; but because of the peo- 
ple which stand by I said it, that they may 
believe that thou hast sent me. And when 
he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud 
voice, Lazarus, come forth." This to my 
mind is a wonderful illustration of the 
power of prayer and a striking illustration 
of the result of ability to pray. 

Not long ago there came to me from a 
Western city a request that I should write 
the rules for soul-winning on a postal card 



84 Day by Day. 

which was enclosed in the letter. This 
seemed a strange request to me, because 
hundreds of pages have been occupied by 
skilful workmen in describing the best rules 
for soul-winning, and I was on the eve of 
returning the postal card, when it occurred 
to me that I could write in a single sentence 
upon this one card the real rule for the win- 
ning of a soul; that would be, our ability to 
pray. It was after Jesus prayed that he said, 
"Lazarus, come forth," and Lazarus arose. 

Then in Luke 9: 29 we read, " And as he 
prayed, the fashion of his countenance was 
altered, and his raiment was white and 
glistering." In many respects this is the 
best illustration. The prayer life is the 
secret of a transfigured life, and he who 
knows how to approach the Master in 
prayer comes day by day to absorb more 
and more of the beauty of his life, until at 
last the fashion of the countenance is 
changed. When Paul said, " Be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind," as 
he wrote his epistle to the Romans he used 
the same word which in Luke's Gospel de- 
scribes the transfiguration of Christ; so it 
was as if he had said, " Be ye transfigured." 
The secret of this is in knowing how to pray. 



Twentieth Day. 
Some Suggestions about Prayer. 

On the margin of a dear friend's Bible 
opposite the sixth chapter of Matthew and 
the sixth verse, " But thou, when thou 
prayest, enter into thy closet, and when 
thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret; and thy Father which 
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly," I 
read the following. Each word begins with 
P, and for this reason is the more striking. 

Period. There must be a period for 
prayer, suggested by the word " when" in 
the text. A little portion of each day ought 
to be set apart for getting alone with God. 

Place. There must be a place for prayer, 
suggested by the word "closet" in the 
text. A closet is a shut-in place where 
even your dearest friend has not the privi- 
lege to enter if you are in prayer. Every 
home ought to have its secret place where 
occasionally one could get away from the 
world and meet his Father. 
85 



86 Day by Day. 

Privacy. There must be privacy in 
prayer, suggested by the shut door. This 
means that for a time, at least, the world is 
to be shut out and you are to be alone. 
There is no business man in the world that 
could not take a little bit of each day for 
such communion as this, no child of God 
but could give at least ten minutes to com- 
munion concerning heavenly things. 

Persons. There are certain persons in 
prayer suggested by the words "pray to 
thy Father." The singular form of prayer 
is unto the Father, by the Spirit, and in the 
name of Christ. 

Promise. There is a sure promise in the 
word suggested by the words, "shall re- 
ward thee openly." Mr. Spurgeon was 
once asked how it was that he was able to 
secure so much from God. He responded, 
"I always take one of his promises and 
plead them, and God never goes back on 
his word." It has been suggested by some 
one that if prayer is to prevail with God 
there are certain conditions which must al- 
ways be borne in mind. 

First, Separation from sin. "If I regard 
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
me." 



Some Suggestions about Prayer. 87 

Second, Righteousness. "The effectual 
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth 
much." 

Third, Faith. "He that cometh to God 
must believe that he is a rewarder of them 
that diligently seek him. 

Fourth, Submission. " If we ask anything 
according to his will, he heareth us." 

Fifth, Thankfulness. " In everything by 
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving 
let your requests be made known unto God." 



Twenty-first Day. 

Obedience. 

We have gone step by step together in 
the meditations for the morning watch, and 
now have come to the last condition of all, 
in the observance of which we shall enter 
upon a better Christian experience than 
many of us have known before. For many 
reasons this condition is the one which 
should be mentioned first, but my readers 
will understand if they will carefully con- 
sider the steps suggested why it is pre- 
sented last. Obedience is the great condi- 
tion of power. 

It is a principle stated in science that if 
we obey the law of a force we may com- 
mand that force. Put your mill-wheel in 
the way of the running stream, and, obey- 
ing the law of the force of that stream, you 
may turn its power withersoever you will. 
So we may quite understand that if we 
obey God we may in a sense command his 
power. 

88 



Obedience. 89 

Obedience to Christ is the secret of a joy- 
ous Christian life, and his commands are 
not grievous. "The commands of Jesus" 
then constitute his word. Of this word we 
cannot choose out a half or part to keep; 
the whole heart and the whole mind must 
yield itself completely to this word and in 
simplicity of purpose cling to it; then all 
truth we know about Jesus becomes as one 
word, one thought that comprehends all, 
one single light in which we behold Jesus 
himself. 

To some one I am indebted for the fol- 
lowing outline: 

Service implies subjection, and it is never 
to be forgotten that we are to be yielded to 
the word of God and the Spirit of God in 
all things if we are the children of God. 

We do not work to become sons of God; 
this is never taught in the Scripture; but 
because we are such we labor. The fol- 
lowing forms of service are suggested: — 

First, Consecrated service. Consecration 
means setting apart any one or anything to 
the service of the Lord. It is really an act 
of God; we yield, and he then sets us apart 
to his service. It also means to fill the 
hands. See the marginal reading of Exod. 



go Day by Day. 

28:41, "And thou shalt put them upon 
Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him ; 
and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, 
and sanctify them, that they may minister 
unto me in the priest's office." In the olden 
times the offering and the sacrifice were for 
Aaron and his priests as they reached forth 
their hands, but now for those of us who 
live in this dispensation it is Christ himself. 
He is our light, Ps. 27:1; salvation, Ps. 
27: 1 ; righteousness, 1 Cor. 1 : 30; redeemer, 
1 Cor. 1:30; sanctifier, 1 Cor. 1:30; de- 
liverer, 2 Cor. 1: 10; wisdom, 1 Cor. 1:30; 
strength, Ps. 27:1; power, Matt. 28: 18; 
indeed, Christ is all and in all. 

Thus we have consecration presented in 
its twofold aspect. We yield ourselves to 
Christ, and he separates us; we wait upon 
him, and he gives us Christ. He has said to 
us that we must present our bodies a living 
sacrifice, and because he has said this let us 
do it. 

Second, Prayerful service. We are told 
to pray without ceasing, and we must 
obey. What an example he was! Read 
Luke 3:21, "Now when all the people 
were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus 
also being baptized, and praying, the heaven 



Obedience. 91 

was opened." Luke 5: 16, "And he with- 
drew himself into the wilderness and 
prayed." Luke 6: 12, " And it came to pass 
in those days that he went out into a 
mountain to pray, and continued all night 
in prayer to God." Since he has bidden us 
to pray we shall be powerless if we disobey 
him. 

Third, Diligent service. What a diligent 
servant Christ was, ever about his Father's 
business and not satisfied till he could say 
as to his atoning work, "It is finished"! 
What a diligent servant Christ is; he ever 
lives to make intercession for us; with such 
an example how diligent we should be! 
Did you ever notice the contrast you find in 
the book of Proverbs between the diligent 
and slothful man ? The slothful man is 
foolish (Prov. 6:6); his way is like a hedge 
of thorns (Prov. 15: 19); he is as bad as the 
man that is a great waster (Prov. 18: 9); he 
is famished (Prov. 19: 15); he goes begging 
(Prov. 20:4); he is void of understanding 
(Prov. 24: 30-34). The diligent man is rich 
(Prov. 10: 4); his substance is precious 
(Prov. 12:27); his thoughts tend only to 
plenteousness (Prov. 21: 5); he shall stand 
before kings (Prov. 22: 29). He has com- 



92 Day by Day. 

manded us to be diligent; if we are dis- 
obedient, we shall be unfaithful. 

Fourth, // is rewarded service. One of 
the most touching incidents of the war in 
South Africa occurred last July when Cap- 
tain Towse received the first Victoria Cross 
bestowed by the Queen for valor in the 
field. He had taken his place by the side 
of a wounded colonel, and kept the Boers 
off until help came, in the mean time him- 
self blinded in both eyes by a bullet. He 
was taken to Windsor, led into the royal 
presence by his wife, where he knelt at 
the feet of his aged sovereign. Her hands 
trembled so that she could scarcely pin on 
the most prized of all British decorations, 
and when the Queen was through there 
was not a dry eye among all the officers 
present. 

There is no service without its reward; 
and, when we see face to face Him whose 
words we have been commanded to obey, 
we shall receive from him not the Victoria 
Cross, but the crown and the commenda- 
tion, "Well done, good and faithful serv- 
ant." 



Twenty-second Day 

The Manifestation of Power. 

The manifestation of the power of God 
in us depends upon the individual. Ex- 
periences will likely be as different in the 
reception of the Holy Ghost as in the ac- 
ceptance of Christ. 

We have only to remember the stories of 
the blind men to see how differently Christ 
works with different individuals. I can 
imagine them in a convention, and one 
testifies that the Master put clay and spittle 
on his eyes and commanded him to wash, 
and he could see; another declares that this 
is impossible, for the Master did not even 
touch his eyes, and he could see; and still 
another affirms that the touch was neces- 
sary because Christ put his fingers upon his 
eyes, and he could see; still another affirms 
that it is impossible to come to sight in- 
stantly, for when he saw first it was men 
as trees walking; but, while the experi- 
ences are different, their testimony is the 
93 



94 Day by Day. 

same in this, that whereas they were blind, 
now they can see. 

Mr. Moody received the Holy Ghost with 
wonderful manifestation, and was at last 
obliged to stand upon his feet and say, 
"Stay thy hand, for I can receive no more," 
while Mr. Meyer, with simple faith in the 
risen Christ, a faith that was utterly devoid 
of emotion, accepted the fulness of God, 
and went forth upon a life of marvellous 
victory and power. 

We can leave the manifestation of the 
power with God; only as a result of these 
meditations let us definitely surrender our- 
selves unto him, knowing assuredly that 
what we yield he will accept and what he 
uses is always pleasing to him. The fol- 
lowing questions are proposed in closing: 

First, Is thine heart right in the sight of 
of God ? It may not be that we have com- 
mitted great sin; but we are the temples of 
God and, if we change the figure, we are 
vessels made meet for his service. If the 
temple be filled with that which is unclean 
as in the Old Testament days, and if the 
vessels be used as were those in the feast 
of Belshazzar the king, God is dishonored 
and his work is hindered. 



The Manifestation of Power. 95 

Second, Do we live in the right way? 
How many prayers are neither earnest nor 
sincere! how many people to-day profess 
to keeping religious ordinances outwardly, 
while inwardly they are grieving the Spirit 
of God because of inconsistency, deceitful- 
ness, and wrong motives for work! 

Third, Are we not worldly-minded, cen- 
tring our thoughts on the world when they 
ought to be fixed upon Christ, aiming to be 
rich when for our sakes he became poor ? 
Not careful about little things. This is one 
of the things that grieves the Spirit most. 
It is one thing for the church to be in the 
world; it is quite another for the world to 
be in the church, and some one has said 
that the reason why men do not join the 
church is too frequently found in the fact 
that the church has joined the world. To 
lead a man to Christ it is necessary to con- 
vince him that you have something that he 
has not. 

Fourth, Do we not need to confess and 
forsake our sins ? Every vain thought and 
idle word grieves the Holy Ghost; some 
with lust, some with pride, some with se- 
cret sin, are grieving him. It may be that 
we have covered up in our hearts that 



96 Day by Day. 

which is against him. Let it never be for- 
gotten that he that covereth his sin shall not 
prosper. 

Fifth, Are we neglecting any known 
duty ? No home is a complete home until 
it has a family altar; no man is a consistent 
Christian if he fails to speak to the unsaved. 
If we are condemned in any point in Chris- 
tian experience, it will be necessary for us 
to go back where the mistake has been 
made and make the wrong right with God. 
Confession brings peace, and happiness 
and power alike follow in the wake of con- 
fession. 

Sixth, Have we resisted or hindered the 
work of the Spirit? "Inasmuch as ye did 
it not " is as truly a condemnation as "inas- 
much as ye did it." Not to help is to hin- 
der. The curse of Meroz in the Old Testa- 
ment was due to the fact that Meroz came 
not up to the help of the Lord against the 
mighty. 

Seventh, Do we pray aright for the 
church which Christ loves ? Have we 
prayed for the pastor who cannot preach 
except it be in the atmosphere of heaven ? 
have we prayed for the revival which the 
country so much needs and without which 



The Manifestation of Power. 97 

the church will languish ? have we prayed 
for that? Pentecost was preceded by 
prayer, and all revivals ever since have 
been. " From our closet to the church- 
from our knees to the pulpit," was the 
motto of the Reformers. Edwards's sermon 
at Enfield was filled with power because 
the church-members as well as Edwards 
himself spent a whole night in agony be- 
fore judgment was preached. It is said, 
"The effectual fervent prayer of a right- 
eous man availeth much;" literally it is 
"the effectual agonized prayer." 



Twenty-third Day. 
The Closing Prayer. 

" Come Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, 
With all thy quickening powers ; 
Kindle a flame of heavenly love 
In these cold hearts of ours." 

Let us get right with God, and he will 
fill us. It was when Jacob put away 
strange gods and turned his face to Bethel 
that the power of God fell on all the nation. 
It is when the church turns toward God 
and ceases to grieve the Spirit that he will 
work through us; then may we expect con- 
versions all the time. At Pentecost all were 
filled, young and old, men and women; 
and, if we would have a new Pentecost, 

First, We must comply with all the con- 
ditions; and the sum of all the conditions 
is absolute surrender. 

Second, We must bring cleansed vessels. 
There is nothing that we may not accom- 
plish, for he has promised to be in us and 
to work through us. 



The Closing Prayer. 99 

Third, We must let him work in us as he 
will. There must be no reserve, no holding 
back. There is a law in physics which 
states that forces work in the direction 
where there is the least resistance; he who 
resists the least will possess most. 

Fourth, We must appropriate him by 
faith. It is not necessary for us to struggle 
and agonize, but just to come believing, 
fulfilling all the conditions, then believing 
that God has heard us, trusting him to fill 
us and trusting him to keep us filled. 
Great blessing will come to the church if 
this step be taken. 

First, There will be victory over sin. The 
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets 
us free from the law of sin and death. 

Second, The Lord Jesus Christ will dwell 
in us richly. 

Third, He will quicken our mortal bodies. 

Fourth, We shall have all the gifts and 
graces of the Spirit. 

Fifth, There will be real power for 
service. 

A vessel was going to pieces on the Eng- 
lish coast. The fisherfolk had watched her 
through the hours of the closing day, and 
as the night came on it was found that all 
Lrffti 



loo Day by Day. 

had been saved from the wreck except one; 
and it was then that a young fisherman 
offered himself to go out if one would go 
with him through the waves and the storm 
to save that one. His old mother put her 
arms about his neck and besought him not 
to go, for she said, ''Your father died at 
sea, and your brother William went away 
and we have never heard from him ; " but 
the fisherman must go; and so out through 
the storm and into the darkness of the 
night they went. Those waiting on the 
shore strain their eyes to catch the first sign 
of the approach of these two brave men, 
and finally they see them. The son of this 
old woman, putting the speaking-trumpet 
to his lips, shouted out, "Tell my mother 
that I am safe and that we have the man," 
and then shouted once again, "And tell her 
that it was my brother William on the 
boat." Such a spirit as this always means 
results in the saving of the lost; and if the 
church only had it, the unsaved would come 
flocking into the Kingdom like doves to 
their windows. 



Twenty-fourth Day. 

Sunday. 

This is the Lord's own day. Every mo- 
ment of it is sacred. It is his resurrection 
day. Every part of it shall remind me of 
what the resurrection means to me. 

i. The fact that he is risen is God's seal 
upon his claim of divinity. With a divine 
Lord how can we have anything less than a 
victorious week ? 

2. It is the pledge of my own resurrec- 
tion, should I be placed in the tomb; so 
death has lost its terrors and the grave its 
fears. I will work "while it is day"; to- 
morrow may be eternity. 

3. It is the evidence of my justified state 
in the sight of God, which means that I 
have such a standing before him as if I had 
not sinned. Paul writes to the Romans, 
" He was raised because of our justifica- 
tion." 

I will think constantly of him to-day, that 
I may be more like him. The legend of St. 

IOI 



102 Day by Day. 

Veronica tells us that after the crucifixion, 
and after Mary, the mother of Jesus, had 
gone away from the tumult and strife of 
Calvary, her friends gathered in a little room 
to give her comfort. While they were 
visiting together, there appeared one who 
had followed Jesus up the hillside to the 
cross, who, tradition says, gave him the 
napkin to wipe away the blood from his 
face when he had fallen fainting beneath 
the weight of the cross. She thought that 
it would be a comfort to the mother of the 
dying One upon the cross to have anything 
that he had used in the time of his agony, 
and so the famous painting represents her 
as holding this napkin, when, behold, as 
they look upon the piece of cloth is seen the 
likeness of the Saviour. 

This is tradition, of course; but it is an 
illustration of the fact that those of us 
whose lives may be counted by the world 
common and even ordinary may have 
pressed upon us the likeness of Christ, and 
those who look upon us may not only take 
knowledge of us that we have been with 
Jesus, but may be persuaded of the fact 
that we have come even here and now to 
bear about his likeness. 



Twenty-fifth Day. 
Monday. 

This is the testing day of the week. It is 
called by some blue Monday. It ought to 
be the best of all the week because it is 
nearest the Lord's Day. 

It was when Jesus came down from the 
mountain of transfiguration that he healed 
the demoniac boy. Mountain-top experi- 
ences such as we had yesterday are value- 
less if they do not make brighter the valleys. 
He has promised to be with us always; 
that means to-day. 

It is said of Blucher, that when he was 
marching to help Wellington at Waterloo, 
his troops faltered. 

" It can't be done," said they. 

"It must be done," was his answer. " I 
have promised to be there — promised, do 
you hear ? You would not have me break 
my word." 

He was at Waterloo to good purpose; he 
103 



104 Day by Day. 

would not be hindered, for his promise was 
given. 

We praise such faithfulness; we should 
think little of one who did not exhibit it. 
Shall the Lord God Almighty fail in his 
promise? No; he will move heaven and 
earth, and shake the universe, rather than 
be behindhand with his word. He seems 
to say : " It must be done. I have promised 
— promised, do you hear?" Sooner than 
that his promise should fail, he spared not 
his own Son. 



Twenty-sixth Day. 
Tuesday. 

"The Lord is at hand." Phil. 4: 6, 7, 
"Be careful for nothing; but in everything 
by prayer and supplication with thanks- 
giving let your requests be made known 
unto God. And the peace of God, which 
passeth all understanding, shall keep your 
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 

Too often we are over-anxious because 
we fail to read the sentence written above, 
really a part of these verses, "The Lord is 
at hand." His presence will lighten every 
burden. There is no excuse for failure to- 
day; with him I can do all things. With 
him at hand I may have perfect peace. 
Anxiety is not only harmful, but sinful. 

What does your anxiety do ? It does not 
empty to-morrow, brother, of its sorrow; 
but ah! it empties to-day of its strength. 
It does not make you escape the evil; it 
makes you unfit to cope with it when it 
comes. It does not bless to-morrow, and 
io 5 



106 Day by Day. 

it robs to-day. For every day has its own 
burden. God gives us power to bear all 
the sorrows of his making; but he does not 
give us the power to bear the sorrows of 
our own making, which the anticipation of 
sorrow most assuredly is. — Ian Maclaren. 



Twenty-seventh Day. 
Wednesday. 

This is a good day to consider what I 
have and am in Christ. 

I am a new creation. 

I am God's child. 

I am as near to God in his thought as 
Christ himself, and as dear to him. No 
good thing will be withheld from me. 

I am an heir of God. 

I am a joint heir with Christ. 

A dying judge, the day before his de- 
parture to be with Christ, said to his 
pastor, " Do you know enough about law 
to understand what is meant by joint 
tenancy ? " 

" No," was the reply. " I know nothing 
about law; I know a little about grace, and 
that satisfies me." 

"Well," he said, "if you and I were 

joint tenants on a farm, I could not say to 

you: ' That is your hill of corn, and this is 

mine; that is your stalk of wheat, and this 

107 



108 Day by Day. 

is mine; that is your blade of grass, and 
this is mine;' but we should share and 
share alike in everything on the place. I 
have just been lying here, and thinking 
with unspeakable joy that Jesus Christ has 
nothing apart from me, that everything he 
has is mine, and we will share and share 
alike through all eternity." This ought, in 
view of all this, to be the best of days for 
me. 



Twenty-eighth Day. 
Thursday. 

"Christ liveth in rne" Since this is 
true, we ought day by day to become less 
worldly and more Christlike. 

Dr. Gordon used to tell of a little circum- 
stance which came beneath his eyes in 
New England, which presents to us a pic- 
ture of this truth. Two little saplings grew 
side by side. Through the action of the 
wind they crossed each other. By and by 
the bark of each became wounded and the 
sap began to mingle, until in some still day 
they became united to each other. This 
process went on more and more until they 
were firmly compacted. Then the stronger 
began to absorb the life from the weaker; 
it grew stronger while the other grew 
weaker and weaker, until finally it dropped 
away and then disappeared. And now 
there are two trunks at the bottom and 
only one at the top. Death has taken 
away the one; life has triumphed in the 
other. 

109 



no Day by Day. 

There was a time when you and Jesus 
Christ met. The wounds of your patient 
heart began to knit up with the wounds of 
his broken heart, and you were thus closely 
bound to him. How is it now ? Has the 
old life been growing less and less ? Has 
he been increasing and you decreasing ? If 
so, then you have learned Paul's lesson 
when he said, " I live; yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me." 



Twenty-ninth Day. 

Friday. 

Fellowship with Christ is literally partner- 
ship with him. I ought this day to accom- 
plish much because he works with me. 

On the English seacoast there is a certain 
fountain which is within the tide-mark. 
Twice each day the tide spreads over it; 
and the pure, sweet waters are defiled and 
spoiled by the bitter wave. But the tide 
goes down, and the fountain washes itself 
clear from the defilement. This is the 
emblem of a life that is in daily contact with 
the world and its defilement. Again and 
again it is touched by the evil one, but I 
bring you the cure to-day. Live close to 
Christ by faith, and in the midst of trials 
most perplexing great peace shall fill your 
soul. What an influence we might have 
over others if we were thus taking advan- 
tage of our privileges! I think one might 
be a Christian; that is, just simply be 
saved, and not have much positive influence 



112 Day by Day. 

over the world about him ; but it would not 
be possible to live in close communion with 
Christ without having the greatest possible 
power for good over all with whom he 
might come into contact. 



Thirtieth Day. 
Saturday. 

I will yield myself anew to God to-day. 
I am his because he redeemed me, and be- 
cause I gave myself to him ; but to-day I 
will live more than ever before a yielded 
life. 

" What is a yielded life ? 

'Tis one at God's command, 
For him to mould, to form, to use, 
Or do with it as he may choose — 
Resistless in his hand. 

" What is a yielded life ? 
A life whose only will, 
When into blest subjection brought 
In every deed and aim and thought, 
Seek just to do his will. 

" What is a yielded life ? 

A life which love has won, 
And in surrender full, complete, 
Lays all with gladness at the feet 
Of God's most holy Son." 

W. A. G. 
ii3 



Julv 



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